I recently watched Curse.NA defeat AL at the ggClassic. In my opinion it was Nyjacky playing Veigar who really made the difference. Once he got to "nuke status" with his DFG and just enough AP he was able to burst down from 100% to 0% any single champ on the other team, or damn near close. The game changed dramatically once Veigar was at his full his full potential as before this it was actually pretty close.

So why don't we see more Veigar play? I know that there are some hard counters to him both in lane and in end-game situations, but I still don't know why for example he couldn't be saved for last pick. Especially for teams like Curse who have such a dominant player like Nyjacky.

Here are some stats from elobuff.com

As you can see Veigar is in the bottom half of played AP champions and is 69th overall amongst all champions.

You less less of him, presumably, because fewer people play Veigar than other heroes.
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GnomeSliceJul 17 '12 at 20:48

1

IF you look at elobuff.com for example he is one of the least played AP champs. There are other champs who are played less, but he is in the bottom half.
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PugzebubJul 17 '12 at 20:56

I entirely disagree with @MarkTrapp and think this is a fine question. You need not provide statistics that back up every question you could ever ask. If the assertion in the question is wrong, it should be corrected in a good answer. This question should not be closed.
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StrixVaria♦Jul 17 '12 at 21:03

@StrixVaria I made no claims the question should be closed or that it was un-"fine": I'm merely asking for data to back up the premise of the question, which is what we do here.
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user3389Jul 17 '12 at 21:06

4 Answers
4

Although Veigar is a great burst-nuke damage mid who can counter a bunch of AP champions, with one of the best non-ultimate stuns in the game, and never-ending AP farming with his Q, he does have some flaws that may make him a unappealing pick in competitive play.

His damage comes in a burst which is good for killing a champion, but makes him fairly useless when his skills are on cooldown. He is not like Ryze who can deal consistent damage throughout a whole team fight.

Similar to the first point, his cooldowns are fairly long. His Q being the lowest at 6 seconds, his W at 10 seconds, and his E (The AoE stun) being at 16 seconds when fully leveled.

Veigar can be difficult to learn due to his high skill cap. He has to manage his Q's ability to give him AP for last hitting with it and utilizing it for poke. His E (stun) and his W (dark matter) can be hard to get used to. At level one his stun will stun the opponent for only 1.5 seconds, and his W takes 1.2 seconds to fall. That gives you 0.3 seconds to get your W off after your E before your opponent can dodge it.

Veigar is quite squishy, if the opposing team can initiate on you before you can do your combo you will die very quickly. Veigar has the ability to turn a teamfight into a 4v5, either by bursting down an opponent or by getting bursted himself.

Veiagr also has no ways to escape like other AP assassins. His stun can be hard to aim properly, and can be avoided by walking around it. Also in the early game his stun only last 1.5 seconds, which is not muck time to get away from champions with gap closers.

The best way in my opinion to view this, is that Veigar is an assassin and can either do very well or very poorly. Therefore, it is a gamble to pick him which is why he isn't picked very often in competetive play.

I agree with your assessment of his pro's and cons. I think the biggest thing stopping people from playing him is his high skill cap. His stun is hard to use effectively and managing his other skills is difficult. Now all of that being said I think that in the right hands he is one of the best late-game AP champs out there. His E stun is better than some other champs ultimates when used correctly and his ability to turn a fight into a 4v5 makes him deadly. The other variable is that the rest of your team needs to know how to play with Veigar too.
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PugzebubJul 17 '12 at 20:58

I agree, but I would add one of the most important issues. Not only is he squishy, but Viegar also lacks an escape mechanism. While his stun is effective, it requires placement and is ineffective against a number of gap-closers that allow champions to pass through it unaffected.
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LawtonJul 17 '12 at 23:11

Why are you measuring Veigar's usefulness on a scale of consistent damage potential in team fights? That's not what he's for. Veigar excels in curtailing an enemy team's map presence by nuking at least 1 carry from the enemy team every 60 seconds as his ult comes off cd. This gives your team better map presence throughout the match and allows them to push lanes much more aggressively.
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please delete meApr 28 '13 at 0:30

Veigar has a lot of issues throughout the game, requiring careful management and calculation.

As has been mentioned - Extremely squishy, requires proper building, easily killed by aggressive bruisers if the team gets distracted in team fights.

I think the biggest issue against him, is that people view him as an AP nuker (don't get me wrong, he is). So even players on his team assume he's going to nuke one target down, and be useless. However, with cooldown, a skilled Veigar will utilize the AOE stun every 11 seconds. That's potentially a full team stun every 11 seconds, which is absolutely brutal. Once the Veigar breaks away from going for the kill and transitions to a Team Fight controlling aggressor, you hit a whole new level of play style.

A team built around Veigar should include a tank with a snare/stun (to peel aggressors), solid adc, tanky side of support, and AD bruiser third position. To take full advantage of his long range catch and dominate capabilities, and as every fed Veigar results in a transition to heavy MRR countering, the AD focus for the team will punish any attempt to mitigate his damage.

Also, Veigar provides very easy opportunities for early game ganking (pre-lvl 6). Strong CC, moderate damage, if he's controlling his mana supply, you can easily force the mid lane into poor positioning and early deaths (or at least force them out of lane prior to level 6).

Why is he underplayed? Any mis-management of skills, mana, etc will be miserably punished in today's meta, making it a very unfriendly learning curve these days.

This is a well thought out answer, but only the very end and the beginning explain the question. Perhaps you should edit out how to build a team around him and instead focus on why people do not play as him often.
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Shadow Z.Dec 27 '13 at 17:26

The problem of Veigar is the following:
YOU NEED TO PLAY PASSIV, until a point you make some good dmg with your ewq combo.
That should be around 15-20 minutes, having about 250-350 AP.
Before this time, you will not even win a 1 vs 1 against champions, veigar counters.

I read good Argumentations in this discussion and now i wanna tell you how i see it.
My Name is SupportOurJack and i Veigar is almost the only Champ i play mid (+fizz).

-Veigar delets champions, but if you miss the stun, u are normally **
-The stun is in a circle around the mouse, so its hard to place directly on a champ
-Veigar needs a huge amount of mana:
Q 80
W 110
E 120
R 225!

-How already said, Veigar is squishy, because he cant escape from a fizz or khazix or lee e.g.

Now to the positive sides of Veigar:
+If you farm your q a bit (100 minions killed with q within 40 minutes is easy) you get the number into AP 1:1
--> 1100 AP possible in game length of 40-45 minutes without archangels staff and with shoes

+AoE stun. If you place it well it stuns the same like amumu ult, but longer ;)

No i want to come to all the other discussers:
x The colldowns on Veigar are not longer then on other champions
I play Veigar with 40% cdr so my q has a cd of 2.6 seconds, and stun about 6-8
Ultimate cd is about 40 seconds.
x Veigar is squishy, but champions like fizz are too
i often stay behind the support, but i have flash with me, so if one enemy (except the tank) is out of position i flash and stun, then my combo and he is dead before he can move. Ofc this is a bit risky and its hard to make flash and then aim the stun, but: "SURPRISE, YOU ARE DEAD :)"

Veigar is hard to play and extreme to master, cause you need to stay passive a long time.
I know that is the opposite of what mid players in League of Legends do, but its worth it...

------------VEIGAR IS ONE OF THE TOP 5 HARDEST CHAMPS IN LOL-----------------------------
------------VEIGAR IS ONE OF THE TOP 5 MOST OP CHAMPS IN LOL-----------------------------